Which Ubuntu Variant is Right For You?

With the release of Ubuntu 11.10, the Unity desktop is starting to mature. But what if Unity’s just not for you, but you still want the convenience of Ubuntu’s large community and Debian-based technology?

You might start by exploring one of Ubuntu’s official variants.

According to Distrowatch, Ubuntu is the basis for seventy-seven distributions. However, Ubuntu’s official variants are in a category of their own.

In some ways, the official variants are sub-communities, with separate websites or pages and doing some of their development work separately from the rest of Ubuntu. They tend, too, to have their own separate color themes in their installations.

In the past, they have sometimes been neglected by the Ubuntu mainstream. Even now, the variants tend to market themselves independently, perhaps because Canonical, Ubuntu’s commercial arm, is wary of diluting its brand.